What could have been
by Irish Weasley
Summary: This is a look at what life would have been like for Harry if Voldemort had not existed. Better summary inside. Slash HPDM FWGW SBRL RWHG
1. Chapter 1

Hey everyone this is my first Fanfiction so please be don't flame me. If you don't like my story you know where the exit is. Anyway this is a Harry/Draco fanfiction. It also has a bit of twin love later in the story, Hermione and Ron lovin, Lupin and Sirius and also a bit of Lily/James love 

Summary: If Voldemort never existed how would things have been? Would the Malfoys still hate the Potters? Would Snape still treat Harry badly? Would everyone evil be as nasty as they would have been? The answer is… well read and sees. AU

Disclaimer: Don't own any Harry Potter characters. They belong to the genius mind of JK Rowling.

* * *

Chapter 1 Return to Hogwarts.

Dear Mister Potter,

_I am writing to inform you of you O.W.L (Ordinary Wizard Level) results. They appear as followed:_

_Pass grades: Outstanding (O)  
Exceeds Expectations (E)  
Acceptable (A)_

_Fail Grades: Poor (P)  
Dreadful (D)  
Troll (T)_

_HARRY JAMES POTTER HAS ACHIEVED:_

_Astronomy A _

_Care of Magical Creatures E _

_Charms E _

_DADA O _

_Divination P _

_Herbology E _

_History of Magic D_

_Potions E_

_Transfiguration E_

"Harry, that's wonderful!" Cried Lily as she read over his results. He had just received his letter that morning and, to the surprise of James and Lily, had locked himself in the bathroom to read them alone.

"They are brilliant results, Harry." His dad said as he took the letter from his wife.

"Have you heard from the others? Your friends will have gotten their letters do I suspect." Lily said while gushing over her struggling son.

"Mum… I know… we're wizards… and that… we're special… but we… do have something… in common… with muggles." Harry said gasping from her tight hug.

"What are you on about?" His dad questioned with a grin as Harry looked like he was going to faint with lack of oxygen.

"We need… to breath too!" He yelled and Lily immediately let go. Harry laughed slightly as he fell back into his seat and took a drink of water.

"Well have you asked them?" She asked nervously. Harry guessed she was wondering how well Hermione and Ron had done. She had kind of adopted them as part of the family when they met her. Harry still laughed at the memorybecause poor Ron thought his ribs had cracked.

"I sent Hedwig off with a bunch of letters and told her to bite their hands if they didn't reply immediately." He answered.

Lily smiled and turned around to finish cooking the breakfast. It wasn't going to be long before Harry was off for another year at Hogwarts. He was going to be gone until Christmas and the mere thought of that brought her to tears.

"Must you do this every year?" James asked as he wrapped his arms around her.

"You have to promise me that you will be home for Christmas! No excuses!" She snapped through tears as she kissed Harry's head.

"I promise, mum. Wizards honour." He replied holding up three fingers.

* * *

A few hours later they were all sitting in the lounge room when Harry heard a tapping on the window. There was Hedwig with a mouth full of letters and some tied around her ankle.

"Oh that must be the results!" Harry yelped while jumping up to open the window. Lily immediately snapped her book shut and faced Harry. James rolled his eyes at her but he was just as curious as she was.

"Oh." Harry said reading each letter. "They all say the same thing." He laughed opening each letter.

"What do you mean? They couldn't have cheated. There was a spell on them!" Lily said in horror.

"No I mean they all say that they wont tell me their results. They want to tell us in person, together, when we go to Diagon Alley tomorrow. They also complain about sore fingers… and Ron's letter has blood on it." He looked quickly at Hedwig who was now pretending to sleep under her wing. "Good job." He laughed and spoke sarcastically and Hedwig clipped at him.

"You'll just have to wait then wont you." James said to Lily who had opened her book and went back to reading. The men both shared a grin knowing that she was not in the least bit happy about the letters.

* * *

The next morning they were up at Dawn and into the Leaky Cauldron by Floo powder. Hermione and Ron were sitting having some drinks with their families when they arrived.

"Harry!" They shouted and ran over to hug him. Lily and James went to greet the other family members who were shaking hands and hugging them before they could get a word out.

"How's your summer been?" He asked them and the pair suddenly broke into fast speech about what they had been up to. Harry clamped his hands over their mouths and motioned for them to shut up. Hermione laughed slightly and Ron blushed at their actions. "So where are your results?"

Everyone sat down around to connecting tables and showed off their results. Hermione got ten "Outstandings" and one "Exceeds Expectations". Ron received seven O.W.L results but had failed Divination and History of Magic. "Oh well, I passed all the needed subjects." He grinned and punched Harry on the arm.

"So are you ready to go shopping." Molly Weasley asked. "We can stop by Fred and George's shop if you like." She offered. Ron's face lit up, Hermione looked slightly worried and Harry frowned.

"Shop?" He asked.

"Oh we didn't tell you. Fred and George have finally got their joke shop opened. They won some sort of competition, which made them enough money to buy a place right here in Diagon Alley." Arthur explained. Harry grinned at how much the twins had wanted a joke shop. He was happy for them.

"Sure lets go." Harry went to walk forward but found his path blocked by someone. "Excuse me." He said politely and the person turned around.

"Well if it isn't Harry Potter." The boy smirked. He was facing none other than Draco Malfoy.

* * *

So what do you think of the first chapter. Let me know what you think should or might happen. Please review. 


	2. Chapter 2

Glad you are enjoying the story so far. I wont be able to make my updates a frequent as usual. But anyway here comes the next chapter. Please review.

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Chapter 2 shocking discovery

_"Sure lets go." Harry went to walk forward but found his path blocked by someone. "Excuse me." He said politely and the person turned around.  
"Well if it isn't Harry Potter." The boy smirked. He was facing none other than Draco Malfoy.

* * *

"Hello Draco." Harry muttered casting his eyes to the ground. Lucius Malfoy was standing behind Draco sneering at the other people around Harry.  
"I see you are still at your usual standards, Arthur." He sneered looking at the state of the books the kids had already collected. "I see you are at your same standards to, Malfoy." Arthur hissed while standing closer to Ginny. Lucius glared at him for a moment before pushing past Harry rather roughly and walking out of the Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley. Harry watched Draco for a moment, who nodded his head arrogantly and then whispered in a sneering voice, "See you at school." He then followed his father and allowed himself one more glance at the families behind him._

"That boy is just like the rest of those low life Malfoys. You mark my words, nothing good will ever come from him." Molly insisted while giving Arthur a proud kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah well," Harry said hastily, "Let's forget about them and go to see the twins." He pulled his cloak around his neck and then followed the others out into the street. He caught a glimpse of Malfoy and his father going in the Quidditch shop. He rolled his eyes and muttered "git" under his breath.

"Oh they are going to get in trouble for this one." Hermione kissed in Harry's ear while giggling at the sign that stood above the twins shop.

_'Silencing sweets_

_A parent can nag you all the time _

_And drive you round the bend _

_But we have come up with a solution_

_To put that to an end_

_This sweet is great in many ways_

_For it we are proud_

_When they think they're making lots of noise_

_You can't hear a sound'_

Harry laughed at the look on Molly's face. He knew that invention had been made for the constant nagging she had put them through to get better jobs. But he couldn't help but think how well that would work on his mother.

"Well come on then!" Snapped Molly and barged into the shop. She saw Fred immediately standing behind the till and taking money from a customer. George was stacking some new products near the window, but they both managed to see her at the same time. Harry could have sworn he saw them both mutter, "uh-oh"

"I want a word with you two!" She said pulling Fred by the collar into the back room. George grinned sheepishly and raced to the room to save his brother.

"Well we should just look around. They could be a while." Ron laughed and started to walk along the isles. Harry stayed near the counter and looked at the objects that could only be bought if a sales person handed them to you. There were different kinds of small velvet boxes in red, blue, green and yellow. They reminded Harry of the Hogwarts house colours a little and he smiled at the excitement of returning to school.

Fred and George appeared a few moments later. Fred rushed over to the window and pulled down the 'Silencing Sweets' sign. His face was chalk white and so was George's. He walked past Harry and said in a rather squeaky voice, "She threatened more than our wands, if you know what I mean." Harry bit the inside of his mouth to keep from laughing.

"See anything you like?" George asked trying to change the subject.

"Yeah what's in the little boxes?" Harry asked pointing to what he had been looking at. George nervously nudged his eyes to the poster Fred was still clutching. "I'll take four boxes." Harry said. The twins immediately changed spirits and rushed to parcel them up.

"We'll give you discount Harry. Family always get discount here." Fred said adding the last part as Harry went to protest.

"Ok, could you hold onto it for me so I can go and get money from Gringotts." Fred nodded and Harry excused himself from the group. He walked down the street with Ron on one side and Hermione on the other. They wanted to go with him because they had never been on the carts before.

"I'll warn you again that they are quit fast." Harry assured them as they stepped inside the large white building that was the Wizard Bank. He handed his key over to the goblin and he inspected it.

"Oh please, Harry. Hermione and I aren't little kids anymore. We can take a bit of speed." Hermione nodded in agreement.

* * *

"I never want to do that again." Said Ron as he grabbed onto one of the pillars outside as his legs began to give way. Hermione was sitting on the steps trying to stop her head from spinning.

"I did try to warn you." Harry laughed but he too felt a little shaken.

"Shut up!" They both snapped at the same time. They eventually caught up with everyone and did the rest of their shopping while Ron insisted that Goblins were out to kill them and Hermione became angry that wizards paid goblins and not house elves. Harry was exhausted by the time he got home. He set his alarm clock for 6am and went to bed, planning on packing his bag in the morning.

* * *

_Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep_.  
"Ok, ok I'm up." He lifted his head and looked at his clock. It read 9:05am. "CRAP!" he pulled on his clothes and ran down the stairs.

"Wow, where's the fire?" Harry smiled momentarily at Sirius who was giving him his usual wolfish grin.

"Mum, I fell asleep without packing my bag and…" Thump…thump…thump!  
Harry turned to see his father hauling the very large trunk down the stairs and Hedwig in her cage under his arm.

"No, don't all rush to help at once. I'm fine really." He snapped sarcastically. Sirius immediately retrieved Hedwig from him while Harry helped him with his trunk. "You always get a lot in your sixth year." James moaned and rubbed the red marks on his arms from where the trunk had bashed against him.

"Right come on everyone into the car. We can still make it!" Lily said and grabbed the car keys. The drive to the station was a nightmare. They get stuck in morning traffic, which resulted in James shouting a lot, Lily trying to calm him down and Sirius barking at dogs in nearby cars to piss off the other drivers.

Harry was rubbing his face with his hands and thinking he wasn't going to make it.  
"We're here!" His head shot up and looked around. Sure enough there was Kings Cross station sitting before him. "Little bit of magic never hurt anyone." Sirius muttered and received yet another glare from Lily.

"In broad daylight!" She muttered fiercely under her breath. It was now 10:55. Harry had five minutes to get onto the platform and into the train by eleven or it would leave without him. He grabbed his trunk and the trolley Lily had brought and they all ran to the platform. "Have a good year!" Lily called as he hung out the window to wave at them.

"Bye mum, I love you!" He then ducked back in through the window and went in search of Ron and Hermione. He found them in a compartment near the front of the train. They were chatting happily with Ginny, Neville and Luna when he stepped in.

"Harry!" Ron cried and stood up to hug him. "We thought you'd missed it." He said in horror.  
"Just made it in time." Harry replied with a grin. He sat in between Ron and Hermione and grabbed one of Ron's chocolate frogs. Ginny, Neville and Luna soon excused themselves to go and see some other friends.

"We'll see you later, Harry. For Merlin's sake chew, you're going to make yourself sick." Ginny snapped as Harry choked a 'bye' through his third bite of a pasty.

* * *

Soon it was just the three of them. Harry and Ron talked about Quidditch while Hermione began reading her latest book 'The Tale of Belinda: A witches story' She wasn't a big fan of fiction but this book was based on some truth. They had just settled down into a comfortable chat when the compartment door slid open.

Harry looked up and met silver eyes and smirking face. "You were a right git in the Leaky Cauldron, you know that?" Harry snapped and stood up staring angrily at Malfoy.

Now if this were a Voldemort story you would have expected a snide remark or nasty comment. But instead…

"Look I'm sorry, ok? I don't want my dad getting suspicious." Draco said looking guilty. Hermione shot a scowling look at… Harry?

"Well why are you so ashamed of us?" Harry snapped ignoring Hermione's look.

"I'm not ashamed. Look our family fights go back a long way and the whole thing with Salazar Slytherin made my father hat muggle-borns, no offence Hermione. So I have to pretend to hate you." He then shot an angry look at Harry. "Do your parents know?" Harry went to snap back but then realised Draco was right, he didn't want his parents finding out that they were friends. He looked at his feet not wanting to see Draco's look of triumph. "Didn't think so"

Draco then sat down next Hermione and grabbed the frog Ron chucked to him. "And I'm sorry if I upset you." Harry heard him mutter. Hermione was grinning at Harry and both boys blushed and looked away from each other.

* * *

Well there is chapter 2. It was a little longer than the last chapter, so I hope you enjoyed it. Please review and let me know. 


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